Computer application maturity illustration system

ABSTRACT

An application maturity illustration system is provided. Such a system may determine a maturity of a computer application, and display same. The determination may include determining an inventory score, an operational status, a management score reflective of a ratio of an actual management value to a desired management value, a risk score and a future score for the computer application. The future score may be reflective of a projected relative importance of the computer application. The processor may operate to display a GUI that includes inventory score, operational status score, management score, risk score and the future score in a vertical column. The vertical column may be located either along the right-hand most portion of the GUI with respect to a user viewing the GUI or at the left-hand most portion of the GUI with respect to a user viewing the GUI.

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

This invention relates to a tool for use in tracking a computer application's maturity. Specifically, this invention relates to presenting informative snapshots of an application's maturity.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Many entities depend heavily on their information technology (“IT”). IT must be maintained and supported.

The backbone of IT is the software and hardware associated with various computer applications. Software and hardware performance, and resource consumption, matures and changes over time.

It would be desirable for an entity to provide systems for providing baseline measurements and assessment of end-to-end flow of a software and/or hardware application.

It would also be desirable to improve IT stability and availability over the life cycle of applications.

It would be yet further desirable to use historic trends to forecast future application issues and, where possible, to ameliorate the issues on a go-forward basis.

It would be still further desirable to present analyses based on the foregoing in a graphical user interface (“GUI”) that is both informative and compact.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Systems and methods for electronically displaying a pictorial, preferably color-coded, view of IT maturity and/or end-to-end information flow are provided.

The embodiments may include an article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein. The code, when executed by a processor, may cause a computer to assess and display the maturity of a computer application.

The computer readable program code in the article may include computer readable program code, which, when executed by the processor, determines a maturity of a computer application. The maturity determination may include determining an inventory score reflective of the number of computer application that are presently in use by an entity; an operational status score of the computer application and a management score for the computer application. The management score may reflect a ratio of an actual management value to a desired management value.

The maturity determination may include a risk score for the computer application. The risk score may reflect a risk to the entity associated with the computer application. The maturity determination may include a future score for the computer application. The future score may reflect a projected relative importance of the computer application.

The computer readable program code, when executed by the processor, may display a GUI that includes the inventory score, the operational status score, the management score, the risk score and the future score in a vertical column. The vertical column may be located either along the right-hand most portion of the GUI with respect to a user viewing the GUI or at the left-hand most portion of the GUI with respect to a user viewing the GUI.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows apparatus that may be used in accordance with the systems and methods of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative schematic diagram of a GUI which embodies systems and methods according to the invention;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of an illustrative chart which may be used with systems and methods according to the invention; and

FIGS. 4A and 4B show an illustrative schematic diagram include a plurality of GUI of the type shown in FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

Illustrative embodiments of apparatus and methods in accordance with the principles of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural, functional and procedural modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading the following disclosure, an application maturity illustration system may be embodied as a method, a data processing system, or a computer program product. Accordingly, an application maturity illustration system may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects.

Furthermore, an application maturity illustration system may take the form of a computer program product stored by one or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable program code, or instructions, embodied in or on the storage media. Any suitable computer readable storage media may be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or any combination thereof. In addition, various signals representing data or events as described herein may be transferred between a source and a destination in the form of electromagnetic waves traveling through signal-conducting media such as metal wires, optical fibers, and/or wireless transmission media (e.g., air and/or space).

In an exemplary embodiment, in the event that an application maturity illustration system is embodied at least partially in hardware, the application maturity illustration system may include one or more databases, receivers, transmitters, processors, modules including hardware and/or any other suitable hardware. Furthermore, the operations executed by the application maturity illustration system may be performed by the one or more databases, receivers, transmitters, processors and/or modules including hardware.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates a generic computing device 101 (alternately referred to herein as a “server”) that may be used according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The computer server 101 may have a processor 103 for controlling overall operation of the server and its associated components, including RAM 105, ROM 107, input/output module (“I/O”) 109, and memory 115.

I/O module 109 may include a microphone, keypad, touch screen, and/or stylus through which a user of server 101 may provide input, and may also include one or more of a speaker for providing audio output and a video display device for providing textual, audiovisual and/or graphical output. Software may be stored within memory 115 and/or storage to provide instructions to processor 103 for enabling server 101 to perform various functions. For example, memory 115 may store software used by server 101, such as an operating system 117, application programs 119, and an associated database 111. Alternately, some or all of server 101 computer executable instructions may be embodied in hardware or firmware (not shown). As described in detail below, database 111 may provide storage for information input into to implement an application maturity illustration system.

Server 101 may operate in a networked environment supporting connections to one or more remote computers, such as terminals 141 and 151. Terminals 141 and 151 may be personal computers or servers that include many or all of the elements described above relative to server 101. The network connections depicted in FIG. 1 include a local area network (“LAN”) 125 and a wide area network (WAN) 129, but may also include other networks. When used in a LAN networking environment, computer 101 is connected to LAN 125 through a network interface or adapter 113. When used in a WAN networking environment, server 101 may include a modem 127 or other means for establishing communications over WAN 129, such as Internet 131. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are illustrative and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used. The existence of any of various well-known protocols such as TCP/IP, Ethernet, FTP, HTTP and the like is presumed, and the system can be operated in a client-server configuration to permit a user to retrieve web pages via the World Wide Web from a web-based server. Any of various conventional web browsers can be used to display and manipulate data on web pages.

Additionally, application program 119, which may be used by server 101, may include computer executable instructions for invoking user functionality related to communication, such as email, short message service (SMS), and voice input and speech recognition applications.

Computing device 101 and/or terminals 141 or 151 may also be mobile terminals including various other components, such as a battery, speaker, and antennas (not shown).

A terminal such as 141 or 151 may be used by a user of an application maturity illustration system to view, and review, the number of historical (and/or projected) incidents relating to a specific application, the rate of change of incidents on a week-to-week, month-to-month, year-to-year, or other suitable amount of time, basis, compliance with relevant regulations, affect on entity reputation and/or continuous improvement recommendations. Information input for use with an application maturity illustration system may be stored in memory 115. The input information may be processed by an application such as one of applications 119.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative GUI 200 for use with certain embodiments. GUI 200 may include a name region 202. Name region 202 may include service group information. Service group information may indicate which sub-entity, within the greater entity, is tasked with maintenance and support of the application. In certain embodiments, region 202 may also include a short name for referring to the application described in the GUI. Region 202 may also include a longer, more detailed, name for referring to the application.

GUI 200 may also include a device count indicator 204. Device count indicator 204 may include an indication of declining device (“D”)—e.g., a device that exhibits greater than a threshold amount of incidents (including device failures, complaints, service calls, etc.) during a pre-determined time period. Device count indicator 204 may include an indication of not permitted devices (“NP”)—e.g., a device that does not include device characteristics such as processor speed, computer memory, etc., sufficient to satisfactorily support the application. Not permitted devices may include devices that are currently in use by the application but that are substantially incompatible with the application. Device count indicator 204 may also include total products (“TP”) which represents the total number of devices currently in use with the application.

GUI 200 may also include an incident count provider 206. Such an incident count provider may preferably provide counts corresponding to a predetermined period of time. For example, incident count may preferably indicate the number of complaints, service calls, or other similar occurrences that have happened over a predetermined time period. Such an incident count provider may preferably provide counts corresponding to various severity levels of incidents. Such incidents may be recorded using asset lifecycle and maintenance management software, such as IBM Maximo Asset Management software which is manufactured by IBM headquartered in Armonk, N.Y.

For example, incident count provider 206 may provide incidents of a first severity level. Incident count provider 206 may provide incidents of a second severity level. The first severity level may correspond to a relatively lower level of seriousness than the second severity level. The first severity level may correspond to a relatively higher level of seriousness than the second severity level.

Incident count provider 206 may provide a total value of all incidents over the predetermined period of time. The total value of incidents may correspond to the sum of the first level of incidents and the second level of incidents over the predetermined period of time. Incident count provider 206 may also provide a total number of corrective action records (“CARs”). Equation 1 shows an exemplary equation for determining the average monthly number of incidents when taken over an exemplary time period of one year.

$\begin{matrix} {\overset{\_}{I_{total}} = \frac{\left( {{\sum\limits_{n = 1}^{12}{I_{{level}\mspace{11mu} 1}(n)}} + {I_{{level}\mspace{14mu} 2}(n)}} \right)}{12}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 1} \end{matrix}$ I_(total) =Average number of incidents per month I_(level 1)=Number of Incidents of a first severity level I_(level 2)=Number of Incidents of a second severity level

It should be noted that Equation 1 may preferably be scalable by adding one or more additional incident severity levels, represented by I_(level t) which may preferably be at a different level of severity than I_(level 1) and/or I_(level 2).

GUI 200 may also include an availability indicator 208 as measured over a predetermined period of time. Such a measure of availability may include, for example, the amount of time the application was in service on any of the hardware, or on all of the hardware, or on some percentage of the hardware, over a pre-determined period of time such as 12 months.

GUI 200 may also include a recovery time objective indicator 210. Recovery time objective indicator 210 may preferably indicate a class of application, such as a tier, and a baseline amount of recovery time from an incident, as defined above. The baseline recovery time associated with the tier may preferably form a threshold expected level of recovery time for software and/or hardware associated with such an application.

GUI 200 may also include a recovery time capability indicator 212. Recovery time capability indicator 212 may indicate a baseline amount of potential recovery time which the application may withstand. Such a baseline amount of potential recovery time may be weighted based on certain factors. Such factors may include whether the application is customer-facing (which would have an inverse relationship with the potential recovery time because an increase in the customer-facing characteristic of the application tends to increase the importance of the application, thereby reducing the potential recovery time), the criticality of the application to the work flow of the entity (which also may tend to have an inverse relationship with the potential recovery time), and/or any other suitable factor.

GUI 200 may also include an application maturity indicator 214. Maturity indicator 214 may include different scored categories. Such scored categories may include inventory, status, management, risk, and future. Inventory may correspond to a score which reflects a total inventory of hardware that currently runs the application with respect to a desired inventory that may preferably be implemented to run the application. Status may correspond to a score which reflects a current operational state of the application with respect to a desired operational state of the application. Status may correspond to a ratio of a current operational state of the application to a fully-functional operational state of the application.

Management score may correspond to a score which reflects the current number of deployed managers that are responsible for the application with respect to a desired level of deployed managers that are responsible for the application.

Risk score may correspond to a score which reflects the level of risk to the entity associated with the application. Such a level of risk to an entity may depend on a series of factors.

Table 1 (below) shows an exemplary list of risk factors, and the relative weight of the factors with respect to one another, which may be used to determine a risk score. This list of risk factors, as well as any other suitable risk factors, may be used in formulating a risk score for use in the maturity indicator.

TABLE 1 Exemplary Risk Factors Exemplary Risk Factors Weight (1-5) Customer Facing 5 Located on Entity Critical Path 5 Geographic Location 4 Technology Investment 3

Future may correspond to the relative importance of the application going forward. Such a metric may preferably be obtained by determining a baseline value of the application to the entity prior to a predetermined historic period. Thereafter, a trend reflecting the future value to the entity may be determined.

In some embodiments, Future may correspond to whether the slope of the value of the application to the entity is a positive slope or a negative slope. In some embodiments, Future may further correspond to the absolute magnitude of the positive slope or the negative slope.

The future value to the entity may be determined by one or more metrics. Such metrics may include the amount of revenue produced by the application, the percentage of personnel within the entity that use of the application, whether the application is customer-facing or any other metric that helps determine the value of the application to the entity.

GUI 200 may also include a rate of change indicator 216. Rate of change indicator 216 may preferably indicate one or more measured rates of changes made to the application over a predetermined time period. Such changes may include software or hardware patches released for the application, new versions of the application, or any suitably substantive changes made to the application.

Rate of change indicator 216 may show a minimum rate of change over a predetermined time period. The minimum rate of change may indicate the least changes in any single month during the most recent 12 month period.

Rate of change indicator 216 may show an average rate of change over a predetermined time period. The average rate of change may include an average monthly rate of change during the most recent 12 month period.

Rate of change indicator 216 may show a maximum rate of change over a predetermined time period. The maximum rate of change may indicate the most changes in any single month during the most recent 12 month period.

Such an exemplary GUI 200 may indicate a number of important points regarding an application maturity. For example, GUI 200 may indicate a relatively high rate of change, which suggests application instability. GUI 200 may indicate a low availability based on the high number of incidents. GUI 200 may indicate a declining infrastructure, though not yet out-of-support. GUI 200 may indicate high repair call (referred to hereinafter as “high ticket”) counts, especially severity three. In view of the foregoing, GUI 200 may generally indicate a low maturity—i.e., still not fully developed, or past the prime development status—infrastructure.

In certain embodiments, one or more of the indicators in FIG. 2 may be color-coded. The color coding may be based, in certain embodiments, on the score indicated by the indicators. Thus, a relatively low score, which, in certain embodiments, may indicate a high level of risk associated with the application, may be displayed with a red background. A relatively high score, which, in certain embodiments, may indicate a low level of risk associated with the application, may be displayed with a green background. Other suitable colors may also be used, either to show relatively low or high risk scores, or to show some other score that corresponds to another level of risk. In certain embodiments, certain colors, or combinations of colors, may be used to indicate a plurality of criteria such as high levels of risk and poor management, well-stocked inventory but poor future value to the entity, etc.

The score for inventory may be obtained using an algorithm. The algorithm may be based on answers to one or more questions. The answers to one or more of the questions may be weighted. The result of the algorithm may be normalized to obtain a score of between 1 and 5, where a score of 1 may indicate a requirement for a reaction to the score, a score of 2 may indicate an emerging risk, a score of 3 may indicate an improving situation, a score of 4 may indicate a managed risk and a score of 5 may indicate an optimized situation. Also, with respect to each of the individual scores, each one of 1-5 scores, or 0-5 scores, may indicate a unique condition.

Examples of questions that may be used for input into an algorithm relating to inventory may include the following exemplary questions. Such questions may be answered by suitable IT, or other, personnel within the entity. However, the answers to the questions may, for the most part, preferably be objective answers, and not dependent on one or more subjective interpretations of facts.

TABLE 2 Exemplary Inventory Questions Exemplary Exemplary Questions Weight (1-5) Are the processes in place (e.g., maintenance, periodic 5 purchase of new inventory, etc.) to continue to maintain current inventory? Is inventory adequately supported? 4 What are service level agreements (“SLAs”) inventory? 3

Equation 2 shows an exemplary equation for determining a total inventory score in response to the answers to the questions obtained in an inventory query process.

$\begin{matrix} {S_{inventory} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 2} \end{matrix}$

S_(inventory)=Score of inventory

T(n)=Response to query; and

n=individual query number.

Inventory scores, following normalization from 0-5, may indicate the following, as shown in Table 3.

Inventory - what do you have? Score (0-5) No Inventory 0 Unreliable inventory 1 Reliable “pockets” of inventory and processes; emerging 2 inventory management practices Depth and quality of information being maintained and 3 utilized materially improving Fully integrated, system-based inventory; mature 4 inventory management practices in place and being used Process cross checks affirm inventory; modeling utilized 5

Examples of questions that may be used for input into an algorithm relating to status may include the following exemplary questions.

TABLE 4 Exemplary Status Questions Exemplary Exemplary Questions Weight (1-5) How is inventory currently performing? 5 What is operational status of inventory? 5

Status scores, following normalization from 0-5, may indicate the following, as shown in Table 5.

Status - what is happening to the inventory? Score (0-5) No Idea 0 Short term, reactive understanding of performance 1 Data collections, metrics gathering, and exposure 2 identification processes emerging Understanding of patch and moderate term needs; Tier 1 3 elements current Near real time understanding of usage; Tier 2 elements 4 substantially current Modeling based on historical data and what if capabilities 5

Equation 3 shows an exemplary equation for determining a total status score in response to the answers to the questions obtained in a status query process.

$\begin{matrix} {S_{status} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 3} \end{matrix}$

S_(status)=Score of status

T(n)=Response to query; and

n=individual query number.

Examples of questions that may be used for input into an algorithm relating to management may include the following exemplary questions.

TABLE 6 Exemplary Management Questions Exemplary Exemplary Questions Weight (1-5) What level is the skill set of the managers that support the 5 application? How well is failure managed? 4 How well are incidents/issues communicated? 3 Rate the recovery time and the backlog? 5

Management scores following normalization from 0-5, may indicate the following, as shown in Table 7.

Management - what do you have? Score (0-5) Un-managed 0 Inconsistent support and escalation processes; teams 1 segmented; reactive Standard support and escalation model emerging; silos of 2 standardization deployed Management model improving; standard tools and 3 exception management Management processes and tools fully deployed and 4 stabilized Optimized management processes and tools; continuous 5 improvement leveraged

Equation 4 shows an exemplary equation for determining a total management score in response to the answers to the questions obtained in a management query process. Although the management score may be divided by a desired management score (“DMS”) to obtain a ratio, nevertheless, the ratio may be normalized to conformed the total management score to the other scores. For example, S_(management) may be multiplied by 5 to obtain a score that conforms to the other scores, but maintains the ratio of the information contained in the score, as derived from the query responses, to the DMS.

$\begin{matrix} {S_{management} = {\left( \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n} \right)/{DMS}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 4} \end{matrix}$

S_(management)=Score of management

T(n)=Response to query;

DMS=Desired Management Score and

n=individual query number.

Examples of questions that may be used for input into an algorithm relating to risk score may include the following exemplary questions.

TABLE 8 Exemplary Risk Questions Exemplary Exemplary Questions Weight (1-5) How is single failure point managed? 5 What kind of failsafe processes are in place to identify 4 problems and root causes? What are processes currently in place to pro-actively 3 identify risk? What are processes currently in place to pro-actively 5 identify risk factors?

Risk scores, following normalization from 0-5, may indicate the following, as shown in Table 9.

Risk - what risks exist? Score (0-5) Unknown 0 Reactive, problem and incident based risk management; 1 Inconsistent analysis and processes Emerging risk management techniques and processes; 2 material risks accounted for Improving risk management; metrics gathering and 3 analysis; automation for some data gathering Cohesive, integrated technology and business risk 4 management Predictive modeling and industry best practices used to 5 optimize processes

Equation 5 shows an exemplary equation for determining a total risk score in response to the answers to the questions obtained in a risk query process.

$\begin{matrix} {S_{risk} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 5} \end{matrix}$

S_(risk)=Score of risk

T(n)=Response to query; and

n=individual query number.

Examples of questions that may be used for input into an algorithm relating to application future may include the following exemplary questions.

TABLE 10 Exemplary Future Questions Exemplary Exemplary Questions Weight (1-5) Understand future needs? 5 Clear roadmap to meet future needs? 4 Customers' future needs - how well is the application 3 prepared to meet the future needs? Future technology needs - how well is the application 5 able to meet the future technology evolution?

Future scores, following normalization from 0-5, may indicate the following, as shown in Table 11.

Future - what is the application's future? Score (0-5) No strategy or planning 0 Islands of strategy and planning 1 Emerging infrastructure maturity and business solution 2 roadmaps; progress emerging Standardized strategy and planning with 12-18 month 3 focus; improving track record Rolling strategy 18-24 months out and planning with 4 feedback and refinement aligned with business Modeling 24-36 months out against technology, product, 5 acquisition scenarios

Equation 6 shows an exemplary equation for determining a total future score in response to the answers to the questions obtained in a future query process.

$\begin{matrix} {S_{future} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 6} \end{matrix}$

S_(future)=Score of future

T(n)=Response to query; and

n=individual query number.

While exemplary algorithms have been set forth above to show possible processes for determining scores for factors such as inventory, status, management, risk and future, it should be noted that other factors may be examined in determining the health of an application. It should also be noted that certain of the query responses may be weighted in order to put additional emphasis on certain aspects of one or more particular factors.

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative spider chart 300 of embodiments. In one embodiment, shown as an unbroken line, chart 300 shows a distribution of present scores of maturity factors: inventory 304, management 306, risk 308, status 310 and future 302. Broken line shows a possible target embodiment (where 1 is the highest score and 5 is the lowest score.) Spider chart 300 shows an exemplary embodiment of one illustrative chart that a visual indication of the relative application maturity with respect to a target level of application maturity.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show a plurality of exemplary linked application maturity GUIs 402-414. A plurality of exemplary linked application maturity GUIs 402-414 preferably depicts the critical path for an exemplary client action. Such an action may include, for example, performing a bulk transfer of funds to an international location. FIG. 4B shows clearing house 416 for clearing of such a transfer.

Accordingly, a GUI of the entity may be logged into via a workstation, at 402. Preferably, the client may initiate a wire transfer for an international bulk payment and have it fully executed and cleared via the applications shown illustratively in FIGS. 4A and 4B. Application 404 may be a front end for sending payment and/or a file delivery application. Application 406 may be a security check application that initiates and/or validates payment. Applications 408-412 may represent various applications. Each of applications 408-412 may check with requirements for international transfer of bulk payments. Such requirements may depend on the final destination of the payments—e.g., Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. Each of applications 408-412 may, depending on the final destination of the payments, prepare payment for transfer to appropriate clearing. Such clearing may occur at clearing house 416.

Application 414 may, in the exemplary embodiment described above, put the payment in a log and configure the payment with the appropriate SWIFT Alliance information, or other suitable banking information transfer information. Such information may preferably route the payment to the appropriate parties in a manner accepted by the countries and/or financial institutions. The joining of the applications represents a possible critical path of the information as it passes end-to-end from the first application, in which the logging occurs, to the clearing.

Thus, methods and apparatus for an application maturity illustration system in accordance with the systems and methods of the invention have been provided. Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be practiced in embodiments other than the described embodiments, which are presented for purposes of illustration rather than of limitation, and that the present invention is limited only by the claims that follow. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the code when executed by a processor causes a computer to assess the maturity of a plurality of linked critical path computer applications within an entity, the linked critical path computer applications comprising a joining of computer applications controlling an end-to-end flow of information in a client action, the computer readable program code in said article comprising: computer readable program code, when executed by the processor, determines a maturity of each of the linked critical path computer applications, said maturity determination comprising: an inventory score for the computer application reflective of (1) total inventory of hardware currently running the computer application within the entity with respect to a desired inventory and (2) inventory management practices in place for the computer application with respect to desired inventory management practices; an operational status score for the computer application reflective of the current operational state for the computer application with respect to a desired fully-functional operational state; a management score for the computer application reflective of (1) level of deployed entity managers with respect to the desired level of deployed entity managers responsible for the application and (2) management processes in place for the computer application with respect to desired management processes; a risk score for the computer application, said risk score reflective of a risk to the entity associated with the computer application; and a future score for the computer application, said future score reflective of (1) an understanding of future needs for the computer application within the entity and (2) an understanding of the ability of the computer application to meet the future needs; and computer readable program code, when executed by the processor, displays a linked application maturity GUIs for the plurality of linked critical path computer applications, the critical path comprising the joining of the computer applications controlling the end-to-end flow of information in the client action, each GUI including: said inventory score, said operational status score, said management score, said risk score and said future score for the application in a vertical column, said vertical column being located either along the right-hand most portion of the GUI with respect to a user viewing the GUI or at the left-hand most portion of the GUI with respect to a user viewing the GUI; and one or more continuous improvement recommendations based on at least one of the displayed scores.
 2. The article of claim 1 wherein the inventory score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said inventory score being based on the equation: $S_{inventory} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ where: S_(inventory)=Score of inventory T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 3. The article of claim 1 wherein the operational status score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said operational status score being based on the equation: $S_{status} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ where: S_(status)=Score of operational status T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 4. The article of claim 1 wherein the management score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said management score being based on the equation: $S_{management} = {\left( \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n} \right)/{DMS}}$ S_(management)=Score of management T(n)=Response to query; DMS=Desired Management Score and n=individual query number.
 5. The article of claim 1 wherein the risk score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said risk score being based on the equation: $S_{risk} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ S_(risk)=Score of risk T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 6. The article of claim 1 wherein the future score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said future score being based on the equation: $S_{future} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ S_(future)=Score of future T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 7. The article of claim 1 wherein the maturity determination further comprises determining the average monthly number of incidents involving the application taken over a time period of one year, the average monthly number of incidents calculated using the following equation: $\overset{\_}{I_{total}} = \frac{\left( {{\sum\limits_{n = 1}^{12}{I_{{level}\mspace{14mu} 1}(n)}} + {I_{{level}\mspace{14mu} 2}(n)}} \right)}{12}$ I_(total) =Average number of incidents per month I_(level 1)=Number of Incidents of a first severity level I_(level 2)=Number of Incidents of a second severity level.
 8. The article of claim 1, wherein at least one of the inventory score, the status score, the management score, the risk score and the future score is color-coded such that the display of the at least one the inventory score, the status score, the management score, the risk score and the future score changes color dependant on the score recorded therein, wherein the continuous improvement recommendation is associated with the color coding for a score.
 9. Apparatus for assessing the maturity of a plurality of linked critical path computer applications within an entity, the linked critical path computer applications comprising a joining of computer applications controlling an end-to-end flow of information in a client action, the apparatus comprising: a receiver configured to receive; an inventory score for the computer application reflective of (1) total inventory of hardware currently running the computer application within the entity with respect to a desired inventory and (2) inventory management practices in place for the computer application with respect to desired inventory management practices; an operational status score for the computer application reflective of the current operational state for the computer application with respect to a desired fully-functional operational state; a management score for the computer application, said management score reflective of a ratio of an actual management value to a desired management value; a risk score for the computer application, said risk score reflective of a risk to the entity associated with the computer application; and a future score for the computer application, said future score reflective of (1) an understanding of future needs for the computer application within the entity and (2) an understanding of the ability of the computer application to meet future needs; and a processor configured to determine, based on the inventory score, the operational status score, the management score, the risk score and the future score, the maturity of the computer application and to cause linked critical path computer application, maturity graphic user interfaces (“GUIs”) to be displayed, each GUI including: said inventory score, said operational status score, said management score, said risk score and said future score for the computer application in a vertical column, said vertical column being located either along the right-hand most portion of the GUI with respect to a user viewing the GUI or at the left-hand most portion of the GUI with respect to a user viewing the GUI; and one or more improvement recommendations based on at least one of the displayed sources.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the inventory score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said inventory score being based on the equation: $S_{invetory} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ where: S_(inventory)=Score of inventory T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the operational status score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said operational status score being based on the equation: $S_{status} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ where: S_(status)=Score of operational status T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the management score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said management score being based on the equation: $S_{management} = {\left( \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n} \right)/{DMS}}$ S_(management)=Score of management T(n)=Response to query; DMS=Desired Management Score and n=individual query number.
 13. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the risk score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said risk score being based on the equation: $S_{risk} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ S_(risk)=Score of risk T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 14. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the future score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said future score being based on the equation: $S_{future} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ S_(future)=Score of future T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 15. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the maturity determination further comprises determining the average monthly number of incidents involving the application taken over a time period of one year, the average monthly number of incidents calculated using the following equation: $\overset{\_}{I_{total}} = \frac{\left( {{\sum\limits_{n = 1}^{12}{I_{{level}\mspace{14mu} 1}(n)}} + {I_{{level}\mspace{14mu} 2}(n)}} \right)}{12}$ I_(total) =Average number of incidents per month I_(level 1)=Number of incidents of a first severity level I_(level 2)=Number of Incidents of a second severity level.
 16. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein at least one of the inventory score, the status score, the management score, the risk score and the future score is color-coded such that the display of the at least one the inventory score, the status score, the management score, the risk score and the future score changes color dependant on the score recorded therein.
 17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a processor on a computer system, perform a method for displaying an assessment of the maturity of a plurality of linked critical path computer applications controlling an end-to-end flow of information for a client action, the method comprising: using a receiver to receive: an inventory score for the computer application reflective of (1) total inventory of hardware currently running the computer application within the entity with respect to a desired inventory and (2) inventory management practices in place for the computer application with respect to desired inventory management practices; an operational status score for the computer application reflective of the current operational state for the computer application within the entity with respect to a desired fully-operational state; a management score for the computer application, said management score reflective of a ratio of an actual management value to a desired management value; a risk score for the computer application, said risk score reflective of a risk to the entity associated with the computer application; and a future score for the computer application, said future score reflective of (1) an understanding of future needs for the computer application within the entity and (2) an understanding of the ability of the computer application to meet the future needs; and based on the determination, using the processor to display linked application maturity graphic user interfaces (“GUI”s) for the plurality of linked critical path computer applications controlling the end-to-end flow of information the client action, each GUI including: said inventory score, said operational status score, said management score, said risk score and said future score for the application in a vertical column, said vertical column being located either along the right-hand most portion of the GUI with respect to a user viewing the GUI or at the left-hand most portion of the GUI with respect to a user viewing the GUI; and one or more improvement recommendations based on at least one of the displayed scores.
 18. The method of claim 17 wherein the inventory score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said inventory score being based on the equation: $S_{invetory} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ where: S_(inventory)=Score of inventory T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 19. The method of claim 17 wherein the operational status score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said operational status score being based on the equation: $S_{status} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ where: S_(status)=Score of operational status T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 20. The method of claim 17 wherein the management score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said management score being based on the equation: $S_{management} = {\left( \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n} \right)/{DMS}}$ S_(management)=Score of management T(n)=Response to query; DMS=Desired Management Score and n=individual query number.
 21. The method of claim 17 wherein the risk score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said risk score being based on the equation: $S_{risk} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ S_(risk)=Score of risk T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 22. The method of claim 17 wherein the future score is determined using a plurality of values obtained from responses to a plurality of queries, said future score being based on the equation: $S_{future} = \frac{\left( {\sum\limits_{1}^{n}{T(n)}} \right)}{n}$ S_(future)=Score of future T(n)=Response to query; and n=individual query number.
 23. The method of claim 17 wherein the maturity determination further comprises determining the average monthly number of incidents involving the application taken over a time period of one year, the average monthly number of incidents calculated using the following equation: $\overset{\_}{I_{total}} = \frac{\left( {{\sum\limits_{n = 1}^{12}{I_{{level}\mspace{14mu} 1}(n)}} + {I_{{level}\mspace{14mu} 2}(n)}} \right)}{12}$ I_(total) =Average number of incidents per month I_(level 1)=Number of Incidents of a first severity level I_(level 2)=Number of Incidents of a second severity level.
 24. The method of claim 17 wherein at least one of the inventory score, the status score, the management score, the risk score and the future score is color-coded such that the display of the at least one the inventory score, the status score, the management score, the risk score and the future score changes color dependant on the score recorded therein. 